Courts and Crime

Tony Ware, a former Bedford County District 5 Supervisor, pleaded no contest Tuesday in Bedford County Circuit Court to seven embezzlement charges and seven money laundering charges.
The charges stem from his handling of a fundraiser, his time as treasurer of the Big Island Volunteer Fire Department and his work as power of attorney for a county resident.

The Evington man convicted of robbing, at gunpoint, the Taco Bell in Forest, will spend six years in prison for his crimes.
But it could have been longer.
Elton Mays Short III, 23, was facing a nine-year mandatory sentence until his lawyer, Linda Willis, presented a recent case to Judge James Updike in which the Virginia Supreme Court ruled mandatory gun sentences could run concurrently, rather than consecutively.

A Newport News man, serving on active duty in the U.S. Army, is facing two computer solicitation charges.
Scott Anthony Fare, arrested last September as part of a Southern Virginia Internet Crimes Against Children task force investigation, was indicted by a Bedford County grand jury last Wednesday on two counts of computer solicitation. The 31-year-old Fort Eustis soldier is accused of using a computer to inappropriately communicate with someone he thought to be a 14-year-old female.

After having her house broken into Friday, a Bedford woman is warning people about the men she believes committed the crime.
Beverly Stanley of Timber Ridge Road said a number of items were taken from her home Friday morning after two men knocked on doors in the area, asking for directions to Wal-Mart. She said if someone was home, the two men moved on. But she wasn’t and her house was targeted as a result, she believes.
“They busted in my back door,” she said.

A 32-year-old man will spend 22 years in prison for the rape of an 11-year-old girl.
Last week Ernest Walter Davis, of Bedford, pleaded no contest to the charge in Bedford County circuit court.
Assistant Commonwealth’s Attorney Wes Nance said that the rape occurred on Aug. 11, 2011. The girl had spent the night at the apartment of the grandmother of a friend. What the girl’s family did not know is that the grandmother had a drinking problem.

An Evington woman, who pleaded guilty in September to 15 counts of embezzlement while working at Kroger, received a suspended sentence in the case during a hearing Friday in Bedford County Circuit Court.

All eight felony counts were dropped against Jennifer Elaine Johns; she was only found guilty of seven misdemeanor counts. She received six months on each conviction, for a total of 42 months, all of which was suspended.

The Bedford County Sheriff’s Office is investigating the larceny of fuel oil from two county churches.
On Saturday, Dec. 1 Beaver Dam Baptist Church, 10665 Stewartsville Rd., reported fuel oil missing from the church’s oil tank located behind the church. On Friday evening, a dark color F-150 Ford truck was seen in the area of the church, according to a release from the BCSO.